Some Truffle Basics
Truffle has a unique aroma and flavour and can be easily drowned out,
cooked out or otherwise lost to the palette and nose. Treat her right
and she shall reward you with an experience to be remembered! So here
are a few simple tips on what a truffle likes.
When using truffle, quiet often, simple is best. Truffle marries well with oily and simple foods. Some examples of oily food are cheese and butter bases. Simple might be the wrong word to use but things like eggs, potatoes, fish, pasta, chicken are all enhanced by the addition of the truffle. When using truffle in a dish we tend not to worry about the healthy side of things, be decadent! So we use the best of ingredients, and worry about our fatties later. After all not many of us can afford to eat truffle every night. But if you insist, feel free to substitute some healthier or low fat alternatives.
Some say that about 10 grams per person is a good amount of truffle to base your recipes on. However, if you are producing your own and have plenty to choose from, why skimp!
It
is easy to overcook the truffle; we find that it is best to add the truffle
to a cooked sauce at the end, steeping for about a minute, no more and
then serve. Shave some Truffle over the top and allow the warmth of the
dish to work for you.
A truffle mandolin or slicer is an excellent way to maximise value from a truffle by being able to shave the truffle very thinly. This also allows for some flair at the table and is always popular!
Using thin slices creates a greater surface area and when added to a dish, best results are achieved by doming or stacking the warm food so that the heat and steam passes over the truffle slices and generates that powerful truffle aroma.
Another method of preparation is to crumble the truffle with a fork, again this gives a greater surface area but maintains the truffles cell structure and some believe this to be a better method in cooking. However it does not look as nice, so we use this method in the cooking process such as a sauce and slice in to slivers or batons for garnish or to finish a dish.
One last point… We always prefer to buy locally grown produce and when you live in the South West of WA you are spoilt for choice! So if you are coming to the Manjimup Truffle District, your car should leave with just about every conceivable fruit, vegetable, preserve, wine, small goods, beer, cider…. We highly recommend the local farmers markets in the region, also some fantastic stalls are seen on the side of the roads.
Truffle Infused Eggs
A well known trick with fresh black truffle is to infuse whole eggs with
its flavour and aroma. To do this, simply place some eggs in an air tight
container with some absorbent towel, muslin or paper. Place the Truffle
or truffle pieces on the paper so as to absorb any condensation. Seal
and leave in the fridge or cool place for 2-3 days. If you notice condensation
in the container and on the truffle pat dry the truffle and contents before
resealing. A small 50g truffle will easily do 12 eggs or more. We have
seen some restaurants infuse many dozen eggs at a time using this method.
These eggs will take on the truffle aroma and flavour and the eggs can be used for anything….and pass on the beautiful flavours. This value adding method is great as you still get to fully use the French black truffle.
Note: We have been told by some chefs, but have not tried ourselves that you can get a similar result with rice. Not that you would put the rice in the fridge, if you use uncooked Arborio rice you can semi preserve the truffle and taste the flavour in the rice, especially good for making risotto. Like in a salt shaker, the rice absorbs the moisture of the truffle.
Scrambled Eggs
6 Truffle Infused Eggs (as above)
1 tbs Butter
1 Pinch Salt & Cracked Pepper
125ml Cream
Warm a frying pan on the stove top, melt the butter and crack in the eggs. Add salt, pepper and cream. With a wooden spoon break the yolks and combine the ingredients in the pan, this should give you a distinction between the whites and yolks for a nice rustic look. Drag the mixture from the edges to the centre of the pan as it cooks until the eggs are stiff with a glossy look, the best scrambled eggs are only just cooked! Try the eggs at this stage to taste that powerful truffle flavour; serve on toast or with fresh crusty bread. You can add some shaved or crumbled Truffle to the top of the dish.
Note: When a truffle virgin comes to visit, we like to make this dish as it allows them to taste the truffle in it simplest form.
Truffle Butter
This is a great way to preserve some truffle for after the season in a
readily usable and versatile manner. It will keep for quite a few months
in the freezer.
250g Salted butter
30g Crumbled Truffle
40cm Grease proof\baking paper
Optional Fresh chopped parsley
Allow butter to reach room temperature then place in a mixing bowl. Cut up the truffle, normally off cuts or damaged bits and then crumble with a fork. If using for fish or vegetables you may wish to add some fresh chopped parsley, you will have to wring the parsley out with a clean tea towel and dry slightly, this will stop the butter taking on a green colour. Lightly mix together until well combined. Lay length ways on the middle of the greaseproof paper in a sausage shape, then pull the edges of the paper together and roll to get a consistent size and shape. Twist the ends to compact the roll and wrap in cling film, in the fridge the truffle butter should last for about 3 weeks or freeze for about 3 months.
Note: You can use a piping bag and star nozzle to make little rosettes as a tasty garnish or scoop with a butter curler. Place in ice water to keep cool and separate until serving time.
Trulled Brie or Camembert
1 Brie or Camembert round cheese
25g Sliced Truffle
Keep the wrapping paper! Slice the cheese into two or three on the horizontal. Make a single layer of truffle slices on each piece of cheese, reassemble into the original round. Wrap up again in the paper or use some greaseproof paper and place back in the fridge over night, up to 3 days. Eat as is for an outstanding cheeseboard centre piece or use it in cooking.
Note: We love this on a simple salad made up with green leafs, walnuts and simple French vinaigrette. We have also used some slices on home made pizzas.
Pemberton
Trout
(per person)
1 Pemberton trout
3 slices Truffle Butter
1 bottle Local white wine (95% of the bottle is for the chef, this is
a rule not a guide line!)
1 pinch Fresh chopped parsley
1 Lemon
1 pinch Salt & Pepper
Seasonal steamed local Manjimup veggies.
Clean and gill the trout and wash in cold water, then pat dry. Butter a sheet of foil and place the trout on it, season well inside and out with the salt and pepper. Curl up the edges of the foil and add a dash of white wine. Place two slices of truffle butter and two slices of lemon inside the fish then place a slice of lemon under the head and tail; this stops the fish from drying out or burning and looks better on the plate. Wrap the foil up into a parcel and bake in the oven at 180°c for about 25min or until the fish is firm to touch. Serve with fresh seasonal vegetables, pour some of the sauce over the dish and garnish with a slice of truffle butter, a lemon wedge and some parsley.
Chicken Breast with a Champagne Sabayon
Sauce
2 Plump boned chicken breasts
4 slices Truffled Brie
4 rashers Prosciutto
2 stalks Fresh chives
Sliced truffle to garnish
Sauce:
4 Truffled egg yolks
1 bottle Champagne/sparkling wine (dry)
1 pinch Salt & pepper
30g Crumbled truffle (optional)
Taking the chicken breast trim off the tenderloins and have them another day. Make an incision in the breast about half to three quarters of the way up on the rounded side of the breast big enough to get your finger in. Using a clean spoon handle or gloved finger, open a cavity in the breast careful not so cause a second hole. Slice the truffled brie, place on the prosciutto and lay the chives along side. Wrap the parcel and stuff into the cavity made in the chicken breast. Lay the breast on some plastic film and tightly wrap the breast up. Then wrap in a single sheet of tin foil, shiny side in. Steam in a bamboo steamer or similar over a pot of salted water for about 25 – 35 minutes until cooked and all pinkness has gone.
To make the sauce you will need a bain marie, a pot of simmering water with a glass bowel in it. Put the truffle infused egg yolks into the glass bowel along with the salt and pepper and whisk, do not let the mixture set hard on the sides, you have to keep it moving. Adding the sparkling wine a dash at a time and whisking the sabayon until it gains a thick consistency that should cover the back of a spoon but not so stiff as to peak. You can add the crumbled truffle to this sauce; however we found it gave a gritty sensation, so make sure it is really finely done. In future we will leave the crumbled truffle out and shave some over the dish as a garnish.
Unwrap the chicken breast and place on the plate, cover the breast with the sabayon sauces and serve with nice veggies, perhaps asparagus, green beans and baby carrots. Shave some truffle over the top at the table.
Note: We often make a spare breast up for testing or sometimes things do go wrong at a dinner party, saves having to invoke the 3 second rule?
Duck Breast with a Port Truffle Sauce
2 Duck breasts
100g Seasoned flour
2 tbs Salted butter
Sliced Truffle to garnish
Sauce:
0.5lt Port
0.5lt Beef stock
1 Onion – diced very finely
1tbs Butter
35g Crumbled truffle
To make the sauce, place the finely diced onion into a sauce pan with the butter and cook until soft. Add the stock and port and simmer till the sauce reduces to a coating consistency, i.e. covers the back of a spoon and holds. This may take some time so we suggest you make the sauce first, but leave the truffle out.
Dust the duck breasts in seasoned flour and shake free the excess. Add butter to a frying pan and brown off the duck breasts over a medium to high heat. Once well sealed put the duck breasts in a hot oven, 180°c for about 20 minutes or until the meat is still pink in the middle and very juicy.
Once the duck is cooked place the sauce back on the heat and warm through, add the crumbled truffle and allow to sit for a minute or so. Then ladle some sauce on the plate to give a light covering, or napper the dish. Using a sharp knife fan the duck breast by slicing length ways and arrange on the plate in a fan shape. Add some more sauce in a band across the breast and serve with some truffle shaved over the top.
Note: The next time we make this dish an idea is to try a wild berry coulis, little dollops around the edge of the plate to bring a bit of tanginess?
Truffled
Cheesecake
100g Butter
250g ANZAC biscuits or hob nobs
500g Cream cheese such as Philadelphia
100ml Cream
4 Truffled eggs - separated
¼ Lemon – zested
150g Castor sugar
50g Crumbled truffle
Crush the biscuits, add melted butter and stir through. Pour the mix into a cake tin or pan that you can open, compress the mix evenly around the base. Allow to sit in a cool spot to set.
Allow the cheese to get to room temperature, beat together with sugar, lemon zest, egg yolks and cream. Whisk the egg whites till they peak, then fold into the mixture along with the truffle until well combined. Pour mix onto the biscuit base and if you wish place some sliced truffle as a garnish on top then bake at 180°c for about 40-45 minutes. Set to one side and allow to cool for a few hours or over night.
Note: A local Manjimup producer, the Wine & Truffle Co makes very
nice hazel nuts in truffled honey, which you can purchase. These make
an ideal side to the cheesecake.
Pan
Fried Truffled Chicken Breast with a Mushroom Sauce
(per person)
Plump boneless chicken breast
100g Cheddar cheese – mild
1 Truffle infused egg
1 tsp Truffle mustard
A few Chives
2 rashers Pancetta or Prosciutto
1 tbsp Butter/olive oil
3 dashes Brandy/cognac
Sauce:
Pan juices
250ml Port
Dash Single Cream
1 cup Mushrooms
In a food mixer place grated cheese, truffle infused egg, truffle mustard, salt, pepper and chopped chives and mix up as if making Welsh rarebit or until it is stiff, smooth and spreadable. Take the chicken breast and with a small knife make a small incision in the rounded end towards the pointed end. Being careful not to split the breast use your finger to enlarge the hole, then stuff with the cheese mix, do not over fill, try to keep the natural shape. Take a long rasher of prosciutto and wrap around the chicken breast so as to cover the incision hole. If you can not wrap well enough to hold, you can use a wooden pick to hold the prosciutto in place for the cooking process. In a frying pan melt some butter and when hot seal the chicken breast on both sides and you can flambé with brandy to help seal the side. To do this have the pan nice and hot with the breasts in then add a few dashes of brandy, tip one edge towards the gas flame and up she goes, it may be a good idea to wear an oven mitt and have a damp tea towel on hand the first few times! Once the breasts are sealed place on an oven tray and cook in a moderate oven till just cooked so as to not dry the breast out.
Retain the pan juices and add the port, salt, pepper and mushrooms (you can use your favourite type of mushrooms, I like the large field mushrooms sliced quite thickly for that wholesome country feel). Reduce on a rapid heat until it reaches a saucing constancy, (coats the back of a spoon). Add a dash of cream to smooth the sauce and to give a nice rich colour.
Very nice served with seasonal veggies and some crispy Prosciutto!
Note: When pan frying anything such as fish or chicken an old tip is to always place in the pan presentation side down, then flip over and cook the underside. It saves you having to flip the dish again to serve and if it is fragile the less movement the better.
Poussin
Demi Deux (Chicken in Mourning)
This is a classic French recipe that I love to cook. Poussin are young chooks about four weeks old, they are tender and juicy. You can, of course, use a whole small chicken or quail. I buy the small two packs of chooks at the supermarket, or when I go to the city there are a couple of good butchers where you can get Poussin and quail.
Small Chickens
Butter
Truffle
Carrots, Onion, Mushroom, Potato
1 clove of garlic
Dry white wine
Chopped Parsley
Flour or corn flour
Salt & Pepper
Carefully work a finger between the skin and chicken breast so as to release the skin for inserting some Truffle. Make a small incision in the skin in the thigh fold and again work away to release the skin. Shave some truffle, preferably fresh but frozen can work as well, place slices of truffle under the skin in a layer so as to cover as much flesh as possible. Rub a knob of butter on the skin and season the chickens with salt & pepper and sit to one side.
Prepare macedoine of vegetables to form a trivet on which the chickens will sit. So peel the veggies and roughly chop or large dice, the idea is that the veggies flavor the juices to make a better sauce, it also stops the chook from getting a burnt bum. Throw the veggies in the bottom of a large casserole dish with one whole peeled small clove of garlic; place the prepared chickens on top. Add a good glass of white wine, most important to reserve the rest of the bottle for the chef! In the oven with the lid on for the first half of the cooking time, then take the lid off and remember to baste regularly.
Once cooked and crispy take the chickens out and rest to one side, you should really be able to smell the truffle now! Strain of the veggies and reserve the juices from the pan, throw those veggies on the compost! In a sauce pan or the casserole dish place the juice, chopped parsley and season to taste. Boil and thicken using either corn flour or flour and water, less chance of lumps with the corn flour. If the sauce is a bit dark you can add some cream or milk to give it a creamy color. Depending on the size of the chickens you can portion as you will and serve with nice roasted potatoes and seasonal veggies. The best most succulent roast chook ever!
